Add 2 New Leadership Arrows in 2022
Like Hawkeye Let's Add New Skill Arrows to our Quivers
The Disney+ show “Hawkeye” has a great scene where the archer Hawkeye and his apprentice Kate Bishop are discussing what new arrows to add to their quivers. Gum or knockout gas arrows, or big balloon arrows can all be used. What if church leaders added two new skills to our leadership quiver?
Please don’t panic. Read through this whole post, then you can choose ONLY two new skills to practice until schools are out. Then if you’ve mastered these arrows, come back and choose two more to carry you through 2022.
Worship Arrows
1/2 Hour Early
Come to church one-half hour earlier than usual. What if we got all the worship prep stuff done leaving one-half hour available right before the service. You could use this time to:
Chat with the early birds.
Wander through the children’s wing and chat with the children and their parents.
Hang out in the nursery soaking in the wonder.
Sit in a different pew each week praying for the people who usually sit in that area.
Better Children’s Lessons
Children’s Time, The Time for Young Disciples, Young Prayer - whatever we call it this 5-8 minute segment of many worship services can become stale. Or worse a time to shoehorn in a lesson for adults under the bat-hood of talking to children.
Instead, ask your best children’s leader to prepare a lesson for you on how to do these messages better. Give them two weeks to prep it.
If you don’t have someone to ask, call the nearest Big Steeple church in your area and ask for the same from their children’s ministry director.1
No Church Talk Before Services
This one will be tough. Let your church people know that you can’t work church problems before worship. It’s hard to not get riled up when Person #6 wants to talk about the church’s polarizing issues during the coffee hour between the two services.2
It is difficult before the church’s one worship service to stay out of a complicated discussion about the church’s conflict with the neighbor who doesn’t like the youth’s kickball games on Sunday afternoon.
These conversations are better had during the week on the telephone. Or over coffee during a social time in the hour before church committees meet.
Leading Arrows
Every church leader must work with volunteers and some have paid staff as well. Here are some ways you can make these relationships stronger:
Twice a year write a notecard of specific encouragement or thanksgiving to each of these leaders. Be random so the leader knows you are paying attention to what they are doing.3
Stop in to see the volunteer leader after their ministry to let them know you care by asking what they liked about how it went. Avoid the easy, but “I May be Judging You” question of “How did it go?”
Ask a trusted leader (possibly from another church) to sit in on your event/meeting to give you 3-4 Way-to-Go’s on your leadership style and 1-2 Growth Edges on the same. Choose someone who likes you a lot. Don’t spiral on the Growth Edges. Spiral on one of the Way-to-Go’s.
Have your Personnel committee have one member choose to be the Cheerleader supporter for each member of staff. Have that committee member take the staffer out to lunch on the church’s dime. This time can be one of encouraging and learning of stresses. It is a time of prayer and hopefully laughter. Each year change those cheerleaders so staff meets more people and more people know what they do.
Read one Peter Lencioni book like “Silos, Politics and Turf Wars (A Leadership Fable about destroying the barriers that turn colleagues into competitors) OR a Tony Morgan book like “The Unstuck Church (Equipping churches to experience sustained health).
Family Life
Church leadership can eat your life. Let’s not let it do that. Here are some arrows that might make the balance better for you and your health single life or you and your healthy family life.
The Day Trip
Plan one day a month for a Day Trip that takes some planning. Do the planning so one day a month you get to do that thing that’s more complicated:
Go rock climbing
Drive someone in a 2-hour radius for a day exploring a new small town or state park or to see the lake/ocean.
Get the tickets and do the NHL hockey game, or see the Killers, Lumineers, or Olivia Rodrigo in concert at the outdoor amphitheater.
Go home to see your parents, eat fattening food, and go for a walk with them.
Two Books
Find two books to read on your time off that are fun and unrelated to anything useful for church life. Some good books to try from this voracious reader’s 20214:
“Overtime” by John U. Bacon - about Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines or a book about the college football/baseball/marching band that is near or dear to your heart.
“At the End of the Matinee” by Keiichiro Hirano and Juliet Winters Carpenter. A wonderful modern love story interrupted by real-life, written by a Japanese author and translated into English.
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz. This Pulitzer prize winner tells of a Dominican young man growing up in New Jersey who loves writing J.R.R. Tolkien fan fiction, falling in love, and his amazing family.
In Summary
Here are 10 new leadership arrows to add to your quiver. The challenge here is to add just two to your life for the rest of the school year. These 10 ideas are ways to be a better church leader and a better person. Sounds like a good goal for 2022.
Or email me and I will connect you with a pro - I know three who are fantastic at them.
Many pastor types never go to a coffee hour to avoid these conversations. It is hard to get back to a worship/preaching mindset after someone wants to talk about polarizing church topics.
Please don’t put lessons on these cards. Save that for in person.
I read a lot of books this year so email me if you want other suggestions. I read some non-fiction, military fiction, thrillers, romantic comedies, police procedurals, Clive Cussler, John Sandford, Lee Child, Pulitzers, pulp, and so much more.